John Isaacs is Professor of Clinical Rheumatology and Director of Therapeutics North East at Newcastle University and Associate Medical Director for Research and Consultant Rheumatologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Over the past 30 years, his work has focused on the potential of novel immunotherapies to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ranging from target identification to early- and late-stage clinical trials.

Professor Isaacs runs a research group focussed on therapeutic tolerance induction, including the development of robust tools for immunological monitoring of recipients of tolerogenic therapies. His team has pioneered tolerogenic dendritic cell therapy for inflammatory arthritis patients. He also has a longstanding interest in precision therapeutics for rheumatic disease, having led the Medical Research Council/Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries (MRC/ABPI) RA-MAP consortium, seeking prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for RA.

In 2019 Prof Isaacs became a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator, and is past Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (2019-21). From 2007 to 2017 Professor Isaacs chaired Arthritis Research UK’s Clinical Study Group for Adult Inflammatory Arthritis, developing a competitive research agenda for the UK.

As Associate Medical Director for Research at Newcastle Hospitals he has developed a research strategy focussed on embedding research into every day patient care. He also oversees Research and Innovation for Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (Newcastle’s Academic Health Science Centre), where his focus is encouraging and developing cross-partner collaborative research to improve the health and wealth of the regional population, with a particular focus on underserved communities.